The U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure has opened an investigation into Carnival Corporation regarding COVID-19 on various company ships.
A letter sent to Carnival Corp. President and CEO Arnold Donald requested various documents while outlining concern on Carnival’s handling of the incidents. View the letter here.
The letter came from Peter DeFazio, the Oregon Democrat who chairs the committee; and Sean Maloney, a New York Democrat and the chair of the maritime transportation subcommittee.
The committee is asking Carnival to hand over various documents relating to the outbreaks and the company’s response.
Committee members, in a letter the Carnival, cited “disturbing” reports in a recent Bloomberg article.
“They suggest that officials at Carnival were aware of the threats to some of its ships and did not take appropriate actions, which may have led to greater infections and the spread of the disease. Even a senior CDC official who leads the CDC’s cruise ship task force was quoted as saying she had a hard time believing that Carnival was simply’“a victim of happenstance,'” the letter said.
Carnival has two weeks to provide:
- A copy of the fleet-wide outbreak prevention and response plans.
- All records, from all employees, referencing COVID-19 or coronavirus at Carnival Corp.’s office in Miami.
- All records prepared, written, or approved by any ship’s officer, or medical or health care related staff that reference or discuss COVID-19 or coronavirus.
- All communications between crew members, ship’s officers, medical staff with the CDC, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Coast Guard, the California Department of Public Health or the Florida Department of Public Health from all Carnival Corp. ships discussing or referencing COVID-19 or coronavirus.
- All correspondence between Carnival Corp. employees at the Carnival headquarters and those onboard ships.
